What Are You Playing Now: Gaming Lives

[Katphood]

Installed Condemned: Criminal Origins on my PC with all the patches and stuff. It looks well and runs well. The next morning my PC dies...

 

I just hope my hdd is still intact but it might be the power supply by the look of things. It turns on and after a few seconds it turns off again. Can't get it fixed for now because of the Coronavirus hitting record highs over here. 

 

Guess I'll get back to playing Prince of Persia: Sands of Time on the PS3.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

On 10/31/2020 at 7:31 PM, LadyCrimson said:

I was sort of interested in that new Occulus 2 VR because $299 would be an ok experimental price point to me, but then heard about Facebook account connection/login/integration required. I don't have a Facebook account, not going to get one.  So much for that.

There is a working jailbreak, although it hasn't been released to the public at this point, so my guess is that there will be plenty of non-Facebook units running around in the near future.
At some point I should probably upgrade to an index, I've got a Quest Gen 1, and a legacy account so I don't have to use Facebook, and the original Vive but sometimes I do wish the resolution was higher and the new controllers look very interesting...

[bugarup]

Finished Dvinity OS2. Whoever said that the first map was the best when I complained it sucked -- you were right. The last map was the string of bullsh†t gimmick fights, so I eventually stopped trying to figure out their bullsh†t gimmicks on my own and went straight to 'pedia every time. The final boss fight was, while not gimmicky, but double bullsh†t. And the game put two inane puzzle dungeons before it. Oh, and apparently the best ending happens when you bend over for the same horrible, completely irredeemable **** you've been fighting all the time, I guess that's what passes for "plot twist" in Larian's brand of "storytelling". I'd probably be pissed at that if I took any of story stuff seriously; fortunately, the game warned me early not to do so by gluing the squirrel "knight" riding cat's skeleton (I'm totally serious here) to the party.

I did like combat a lot, though, even that armor system grew on me eventually. Made another party to try different builds and it was fun for while, but upon reaching the second map I realized I really don't want to go through all the annoyances (abysmal inventory system, sucky orientation and map, slow speed, shallow pointless story) again just because of nice combat. Kind of want to play something else turn-based now, though. Xcom maybe?

Anyway, at least now I don't worry about Baldur's Gate 3 -- that is, I'll be getting its  definitive edition goty redux whatever final version when it's  least 60% discounted.

[melkathi]

I no longer play games. Reading Steam reviews is more entertaining and cheaper:

 killing them in one shot is immersion breaking (ed: when you put a gun to their face)

Because we all know, in real life people have so many hit points, a point blank headshot can't realistically kill people.

[Hurlshort]

1 hour ago, bugarup said:

. Xcom maybe?

 

Have you played Chimera Squad?

[melkathi]

I have been eyeing Phantom Doctrine which is 80% off on steam.

[Raithe]

Ack, double posting.

Edited November 7, 2020 by Raithe

[Raithe]

Still knocking around on Watchdogs Legion.

Its pretty and all (for London) but I'm not getting majorly invested in the story. Just more the poking at it all and idling my way through.

[Humanoid]

Somehow I failed to notice the existence of the Might and Magic 6-7-8 merge project until now, it's been a thing for three years already, and still is receiving updates. Like the World of Xeen thing that merged the fourth and fifth game together, this project merges the three games under the MM8 engine.

I've only done a test run so far because I haven't figured out how I want to run my "real" game. There are some natural limitations that come about as a result of the subtly different mechanics between the games. For example, the logical thing would be to want to run the games in release order sequence. But I also want to run a Thief character, and as that class only existed in MM7 and not the other two, it means I'd be forced to take an early detour to another continent when it came time for the class promotion quest. Progression would be smoother if I instead stuck to classes that existed in the first (uhh, sixth) game, but I suppose if I stuck to that game's structure completely, what would be the point of running the merger in the first place?

 

P.S. It also comes with some other modern trimmings like widescreen support, quicksaves, mouselook, etc, though I'm not sure I want mouselook on right now, hmm.

[BruceVC]

Im about 7 hours into D:OS 2 and Im really starting to appreciate the game, I nearly stopped playing it because I wasnt use to or enjoying the jovial way its written and how characters seem to interact .....it seemed unusually  and uncomfortably light-hearted for normal RPG I play

But I got over that and I am getting use to combat and Im enjoying it 

[Zoraptor]

Finished Pathfinder Kingmaker. Enjoyable and a good game overall, suspect it will be a better Baldur's Gate 3 than the Larian offering. Finished on whatever the 2nd to top difficulty was since I got most of the way through during lockdown back in April/ May then stalled out, and it was far easier 2nd time through. Monk protagonist, got most of the 'secret' content except Tenebrous Depths, because I zoomed through it so didn't get all the trigger pieces before killing the bosses. Think I mentioned it at the time but my major criticism is how random the combat is, tactics tend to be the same most of the time- buff and swarm plus some crowd control- and who wins is determined by saving throws and occasionally crits, most often against your main character since that can be an instant game ender. At least this time the enemy annoying ability spam was manageable.

Plot and characters weren't really anything special or memorable, but equally weren't bad or a detriment. The kingdom mechanics were fine, again since it was a replay I knew some of the more annoying quirks like the Bald Mountain curses triggering earlier than the journal said they would so could work around the old staple of having the protag stuck upgrading someone's abilities while things turned to crap for a week or so. Only had one outright bug too, with one of the crafters never turning up, and a handful of crashes. OTOH, the save game size meant initial loads were pretty long even with a NVMe SSD.

Definitely good enough and enough room for improvement that I'm looking forwards to the next game.

[Sarex]

Finished Subnautica. Great game, still buggy even after all this time. Really like this concept of games. Can't wait for Breathedge to be finised, as it's turning out to be a much tighter and less buggy of a game (I encountered zero bugs).

I'm half way through Pathfinder Kingmaker (Playing a Paladin) and so far I agree with Zoraptor on most points. The biggest letdown in the game for me, compared to the Infinity Engine games, is the audio. Especially the background audio, which is really lacking. It would have done so much to make the world feel alive and it feels like they didn't even make an effort. The rest of the audio experience is not much better when comparing to IE games. I would have also liked to see the kingdom events being reflected in the world, but outside major quest, the environment is pretty static. Gameplay is pretty much on par with the IE games for better and worse. The worst bug I got so far is the game not saving, but I found a workaround for that.

I think this is the best Baldur's Gate successor we got so far.

 

edit: oh, yeah not being able to alt-tab the game in 2020, wtf.

Edited November 8, 2020 by Sarex

[MedicineDan]

Yeah, I liked Pathfinder.  Solid game and absolutely huge.  I couldn't get into D:OS2.  Something about the combat was just too clunky for me.  Anyhow, I broke down and bought that Stygian Lovecraft game.  I haven't tried it yet.  It got mixed reviews, but I've had good luck here, so I tend to weigh that a little heavier than the overall rating on Steam.  Now that the election is over, I need another entertainment source, only one a little less time consuming.

[bugarup]

On 11/7/2020 at 6:22 PM, Hurlshot said:

Have you played Chimera Squad?

Nah, don't have this one. Is it much different from XCOM 1 and 2?

I settled for "Stirring Abyss" for now. Much smaller game and way simpler combat, but good cthulhy atmosphere.

[majestic]

2 hours ago, Sarex said:

The biggest letdown in the game for me, compared to the Infinity Engine games, is the audio. Especially the background audio, which is really lacking. It would have done so much to make the world feel alive and it feels like they didn't even make an effort.

Whenever I fire up a game of Baldur's Gate I am, every time without fail, impressed with how good the ambient sounds in the game are. I sometimes just turn off the music to stroll through a woodland area or two listening to the breeze and the chirping of birds.

I think I'll go face the new Lord of Murder once again.

  

1 hour ago, bugarup said:

Nah, don't have this one. Is it much different from XCOM 1 and 2?

Yes and no. CS focuses more on the tactical element of the XCOM games. Strategy is limited to a small city map and sending your squad members on missions, trainings or giving them tasks to do (help with research, gather money, etc.). It's a fun, albeit short game that was worth the 20€ they asked for it when it launched.

Edited November 8, 2020 by majestic

[Keyrock]

The Amnesia: Rebirth 1.2 patch is out and it seems to have fixed most of the issues. There are still annoyances, namely I have to finagle settings every time to get fullscreen working properly each time I start the game, but the game is playable now. As per usual for a Frictional game, I can only play in short spurts, on account of being chicken ****.

[Mamoulian War]

I have gone back to Shadowrun Hong Kong, and spent most that 4 hours on Racter's mission, because I've sucked and let my main character die, due to me being cheap to use a medikit... bleh... serve me right. At least the repeat of the second part of the mission was just 35 more minutes.

Anyway before that from my DS 2 NG2+ I have still two more videos First one is Duke's Dear Freja. I was able to hit her few times during Birghstone Cove Tseldora Encounter, so she started with little bit lower HP pool. She still kicked my ass first time, because I completely stopped focusing when she had less than 10% HP left. Second attempt was successful though
 

 

[ComradeYellow]

8 minutes ago, Keyrock said:

The Amnesia: Rebirth 1.2 patch is out and it seems to have fixed most of the issues. There are still annoyances, namely I have to finagle settings every time to get fullscreen working properly each time I start the game, but the game is playable now. As per usual for a Frictional game, I can only play in short spurts, on account of being chicken ****.

That's the cool thing about psychological horror games, they're about on par with war and soldierly.

A diary from a Union soldier during the American Civil War wrote that war was 99% boredom, 1% sheer terror, yet it's that 1% of the time that keeps you going.

[BruceVC]

6 hours ago, MedicineDan said:

Yeah, I liked Pathfinder.  Solid game and absolutely huge.  I couldn't get into D:OS2.  Something about the combat was just too clunky for me.  Anyhow, I broke down and bought that Stygian Lovecraft game.  I haven't tried it yet.  It got mixed reviews, but I've had good luck here, so I tend to weigh that a little heavier than the overall rating on Steam.  Now that the election is over, I need another entertainment source, only one a little less time consuming.

When it comes to reviews of games I use several sources that include some of my brothers who game, certain gaming websites and opinions on forums like this. But I will always decide for myself what I want to buy based on my own views. D:OS2 was one of  those games that always got excellent reviews generally so I assumed I would enjoy it  immediately

But as I mentioned I nearly stopped playing it and thinking back the combat was part of what I wasnt enjoying. Interesting you also mention that 

But it grows on you once I started understanding AP and more effective combat strategies 

[Malcador]

Slogging along in Deponia 2.  I guess some people find this imbecile protagonist funny or something, but wearing pretty thin.  The puzzle where you have to turn off the in-game music was unique, not sure if I think that was good or not.

[Oner]

11 hours ago, Sarex said:

edit: oh, yeah not being able to alt-tab the game in 2020, wtf.

I haven't had alt+tab problems with Kingmaker.
Which I've been playing too incidentally. Turn based help keep combat more manageable and I can switch to RTwP when faced with cannon fodder. The game's propensity towards rolling me 1s is just ludicrous though. My characters consistently fail to roll a hit against a target of 3. Reached chapter two, kind of stumped on the kingdom management.

[Sarex]

46 minutes ago, Oner said:

I haven't had alt+tab problems with Kingmaker.

When you have 2 or more monitors and want to mouse over (alt-tab) to another monitor the game always minimizes, even when you put it to the windowed-fullscreen mode.

[Keyrock]

Amnesia: Rebirth is pretty intense so far, and, as per usual for Frictional Games, the greater part of the tension is achieved through audio. That's not to say that there aren't disturbing images, but Frictional's expertise lies in audio design. They excel at creating an ambiance that constantly has you on edge. I haven't encountered anything quite as heart pounding as the water level in the OG Amnesia, but it's early going. I wonder if they'll manage to pull off a mind**** as good as in Penumbra: Black Death?

[Chairchucker]

I've been playing Monster Train and Hades.

 

Monster Train is a deckbuilding cross with tower defence game. Each game takes about half an hour or so, and involves you trying to take the last bit of the fires of hell or something like that to restart the fires of hell. I dunno, who cares about the story. You get spells or units from card drops, can upgrade said cards for gold, and then get into fights where you beat up angels with monsters or spells. Kinda similar to Slay the Spire; maybe not quite as refined, but still a lot of fun, and has more variance.

 

Hades is an isometric beat em up roguelike (roguelite?) with a neat story that leans into the roguelike mechanics, lots of meta advancement to make your character more powerful for successive runs, great music and a bonkers level of voiced dialogue. Most runs tend to end up differently, and there's incentives (by way of prophecies) to mess with different builds. Also, once you've beaten the game with a weapon, you have to take 'pacts' (voluntary handicaps) in order to get more rewards.

 

Both of them are great imo.

[MedicineDan]

I've been playing Stygian:  something of the Old Ones.  ...Or Greater Old Ones.  Something like that.  Anyhow, a couple of observations.  First, I think this must be at least the second game in a series because it assumes I have experience with the Dismal Man.  I chose to play someone with investigation.  Of course.  That probably doesn't help me, but I can't help it.  Anyhow, I played a while and ended up with schizophrenia after talking to some weirdo demon/sorcerer dude.  This is a good game, but now I'm bummed and wondering if I should restart with a new character.  I don't want to go mad.  On the other hand, it's Lovecraftian.  I'll probably go crazy one way or the other eventually anyway.  By the way, I love that "Lovecraftian" isn't autocorrected.  For someone who wasn't wildly successful in his own day, it's great that he has his own entire niche in our time.  Gotta love Lovecraft.